Pros And Cons Of Unveiling Secularism

Today’s world is all about decisions. Should we get that new television? What about that new iPhone? Maybe the new Apple Watch? Notice how none of those questions had to deal with anything transcendent or in relation to God. Rather these questions focused on the material items that are available practically at the snap of one’s fingers. There is a lack of religious authority in cultural and social organizations in the modern society that we live in. Charles Taylor, in A Secular Age, focuses on showing that God is still present in our secular society, even when it seems as if He is removed. Taylor gives three separate understandings of secularization: separation between state and church with the movement of corporate practices without God, more

What is the role of a religious ethic in public policy today? Should a religious ethic and/or theistic

The only power the secular government should have are matters of “actions only, & not opinions.” These words echo that of Luther who believed that “... need no ruler ought to prevent anyone from teaching or believing what he pleases, whether Gospel or lies. It is enough if he prevents the teaching of sedition and rebellion (Luther, 22).” Two hundred years later, the influence of Luther’s theology and concept of the separation of Church and state influenced those who founded of the United States of America. This would then lead them to make the separation of Church and state the cornerstone of modern

Secular humanism is the worldview that focuses on man bettering himself without existence of God. Since there is no divine law, what is considered morally acceptable

“Secular: not connected to, or founded on religious beliefs or institutions” (Anderson 35). The idea of secularism in Canada sparks heated debates across the country. How can you force someone to abandon his or her religion upon immigrating to another country?

Assess the arguments and evidence for the view that Britain is becoming a secular society

Governments of the past were based largely on religious beliefs. Be that as it may, the theologies of a governed locale today may be so diverse that the very notion of having a government on top a religious foundation seems ridiculous. Instead, we judge others based on the lowest expectations of moral regulation and while these laws are primarily influenced by religion it is not the sole attribution. Yet, as I expound this there are still governments that are heavily built on religion, much like those of the past. Though, in spite of the respect held for such governments, these governmental bodies can be seen as less globalized, modernized, and in some cases, civilized. Some governments today, in retrospect, would be called taboo in the

Removal of religion implies secular humanism and establishes the religion of secularism. The removal of religion is minority rule. Why should an irreligious minority dictate what the majority can do?

In his essay “The Impossibility of Secular Society” he studies the origin of the word secular, “…secular, secularism, and secularity [roots from the Latin vocabulary] saeculum”, deriving from the Romance language “century” (par. 8). Brague states the irony of this term, what was once meant as a hundred-year limit, is now a modernized term to describe denial of the transcendence (par. 11). Brague claims the second irony is the ephemeral of secularism simply because humanity will always have questions in relation to the transcendence. He continues on explaining the term is tautological because of how the term was redefined as “unity of humans” from early modern philosophers (par. 18). He cites German philosopher Christian Wolff in further of the redefined concept, “When men unite with each other in order to promote their greater good…they enter with each other into a society… As a consequence society is nothing else than a contract between some people for them to promote therein their greater good by uniting forces.” (as qtd in par. 20). This new term truly conceals reality in an intense manner. Commercialized regulations and agreements dissolves and there will always be dissatisfied members (par. 22). Arranged regulations, structured laws and systematic policies that composite a secularized ordered nation

respect to religion: the right to be free from government-imposed religion and a right to practice

"Secular" means having to do with this world, or that which is temporal rather than spiritual. It suggests something that is not specifically pertaining to religion, or that which is apart from God, although not necessarily opposed to

We are not speaking here of the secularist idea that the state should marginalize religion and discourage people from voting their consciences as Christians. We are talking about the idea that church and state are not the same thing and that they have different spheres of activity.

As Peter Berger (1967) explained religion, it is a sacred canopy under which the entirety of life is explained and regulated. Secularization theory as explained by Weber holds that modernity challenges this sacred canopy through two major ways: increased cultural and structural pluralism and increased primacy of economic pursuits (Emerson and Hartman, 2006:129). With globalisation accelerating in the post Cold War era, causing mass migration across borders, increased interstate interaction and huge growth in the global financial market, it was predicted that religious influence would be relegated to the private sectors of social life by ripping the sacred canopy, and leaving people with, at best, sacred umbrellas (Smith 1998). Despite this, what secularization theory did not anticipate is that the demystification of the world provided within it the seeds both for the re-mystification of the world and resistance to the demystification (Berger, 1992:1). Hence the world today, with some exceptions, is as furiously religious as it ever was, in some places more so than ever (Berger, 1999:8). Since the 1970s there has been a particular rise in religious fundamentalist movements, as signalled by the Iranian Revolution in 1979 led by Ayatollah Khomeini, which led to the establishment of the first Islamic State. As Almond et al note, fundamentalist movements have risen to the highest levels of power in Sudan in 1993, Afghanistan and India in 1996, and in India again

We need to pay close attention to the effects of secularism: confining the role of religion to the private domain of the individual and creating a dichotomy between "religious" and "worldly," between "private" and "public." It denies religion and its mediating institutions any public function and influence in shaping matters of public policy.

In this essay I am going to discuss how the experience of secularization in Egypt exemplifies the inadequacy of Peter Berger’s theory of the process of secularization. I will discuss the differences in Berger’s process and the process evident in Egypt, why Berger’s may have failed to address this. Lastly I will consider Daniel Crecelius’s approach to the question of the secularity of a country that has a secular state but a religious society.